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have read from the general reading list for this week's topic on heretics.
Deviance B
Deviance B
Week 5 - Heretics
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*Lollards* *In our time podcast* The Lollard movement began in 1380 at Oxford University. Lollards were the followers of John Wyclif, an English philosopher and theologian, who disputed many of the teachings of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. His ideas were thus declared as heretical and his supports consequently persecuted. Wyclif was a radical figure and separated himself from the church, arguing against papal taxation, believing that the English should not be paying taxes to the Pope. He also attacks wealthy clergymen, believing that their souls are not in a state of grace. This opinion was in fact supported by many noblemen. The Lollards condemned the practices of the clergy, such as fasting, pilgrimage, the adoration of image etc. believing that these practices were instituted by the clergy. However, Wyclif caused outrage when questioning the church’s stance on the Eucharist. He believed that the bread was not the body of Christ, believing that God could not defy the laws of nature he had created. Wyclif was maintaining that the bread was both bread and the body of Christ. Wylif’s Bible was the first complete version of the Bible in English. This was to be a huge influence in the lives of the Lollards. The aim of the Lollard movement was to create a new church focused completely on the scripture. Although Wyclif’s movement ultimately failed, he influenced later reformers. *Shannon McSheffrey, Gender and heresy; women and men in Lollard communities 1420-1530 (1995)* * Lollards in Coventry were different. They practiced their faith in three groups; married couples, men, and women. Women played a much greater role within the Lollard community of Coventry, than they did anywhere else. It wasn’t necessary for the community to practice their faith all together, but they would gather in formal and informal situations to practice. There wasn’t one style of practice for Lollards. People approached their faith in differing ways. * In most Lollard communities the idea of patriarchy was retained, with only males receiving education. In Coventry, however, the Lollard women formed their own schools, where women would teach other women. Nevertheless, leadership of the Lollard schools, also known as Conventicles, was predominantly in the hands of men. Women found it difficult to acquire the necessary skills needed to leadership, for example literacy. * Lollards wished to express the radical spiritual equality of men and women without challenging the social hierarchy which placed women under the authority of men.0 likes
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Swanson, Religion and devotion in Europe, c. 1215-c. 1515*Chapter 8 Inclusion and Exclusion, specifically the section on Heresy* * Swanson argues that it is clear that many people in late medieval Europe did exclude themselves from the church by their interpretations' of Christianity's demands. Furthermore, this was not merely ignorance, as they would insist on following their own interpretations in preference to the church’s doctrines. * Another key point is that several heretical groups reflected the reactions to the uncertainties of Christianity or to the apparent incompatibility of the decreed tenets of the faith with the reality of the physical world. Much of the tension originated in definitions. For example, the problem of the existence of evil in a world created by a God who by definition good, lead to the doctrine of dualism purported by the Cathars. Whereas groups such as the Lollards denied transubstantiation. * According to Swanson, Catharism was the only major movement that was an alternative religion in the fullest sense. ‘Its development of its own ministerial system, including a diocesan structure and hierarchy of bishops, made its challenge to the Roman church political and territorial as well as doctrinal and disciplinary, and may account for the vehemence of the eventual response to it.’ * *Malcom Barber (in The Cathars, Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages)* agrees with this view of the Cathars, stating that ‘Catharism was the greatest heretical challenge faced by the Catholic Church in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries’ and, ‘provoked a series of reactions more extreme than any previously contemplated.’ * Barber states that the Cathars notably viewed the Catholic Church as a false and fraudulent organisation, which had prostituted itself for power and ill-gotten wealth. According to the Cathars, ‘the sacraments through which the Catholic Church claimed to open the way to salvation were quite valueless, since they were founded upon the claim that Christ really had lived on earth, had been crucified, and then resurrected, events clearly impossible, since God could not have taken on material form in the first place.’ The idea of two gods or principles, one being good the other evil, was central to Cathar beliefs. The good god was the creator of the spiritual realm, as opposed to the bad god, whom many Cathars identified as Satan, creator of the physical world. The only sacrament for Cathars was the ceremony of the consolamentum, which allowed believers to return to their guardian spirits in Heaven. * *Swanson* states that most of the other sects were more concerned with the interpretation of doctrine and with disciplinary matters. The arguments generally focused on the direction in which the church was to take as a whole, ‘the heretics were as convinced as their opponents of their rightness in setting out a programme for the totality of Christendom.’ * Swanson posits that the problem of heresy was intermittent and regional. ‘What real heresy there was remained fairly localised - the Cathars in southern France and parts of Italy, Spiritual Franciscans in Provence and Italy (especially the south), Wyclifites and Lollards (if they can be differentiated) in England, Hussites in Bohemia. The geographical concentration of the major heresies was also matched by their chronological limitations, as groups quickly sprung up, they soon disappeared. * Swanson also believes that ‘the establishment of the Inquisition in the thirteenth century was not the foundation of a major repressive institution crushing all independent thought.’ Apart from its activities against Catharism in southern France, the papal inquisition had a limited impact and soon became ‘almost moribund’, with several governments denying it admission to their territories. * Despite this, Swanson does believe that the Inquisition ‘attested an acceptance that heresy existed as a real threat.’ However, the Inquisition may also have encouraged heresy to be invented. ‘Often the accusations may be no more than clerical horror stones, on a par with earlier assertions that all heretics by definition indulged in sexual excesses and the murder and cannibalisation of the resulting offspring in parodies of the mass.’0 likes
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General Reading - Bernard Hamilton, 'The Medieval Inquisition'*Heresy* Heresy has been classed as the positive rejection of a doctrine which the Church had not sanctioned or the teaching of a new doctrine not sanctioned by the Church. Orthodox theologians regarded heresy as a sin, and it was eventually considered a crime. Catholicism was more than just a belief system; it was prominent in all levels of society and it provided a sufficient explanation and understanding of the world in which people lived; therefore, public hostility towards heresy is rather unsurprising, and can be seen as a rational response. As heresy became more widespread, it was treated in the same way as treason and could be punishable by death. Important to recognise that heresy is different to religious doubt, which is negative and concerns the lack of conviction about the truth of a certain doctrine. It was not uncommon for people to express religious doubt, which indicates that there must be something fundamentally different about heresy if this was condemned. *Types/Levels of Heresy* /Academic heretics/ - concerns groups or individuals rejecting doctrine on an intellectual basis. Their writings were often so complex that they failed to have much of a popular following and even popular animosity. /Heretics wanting to reform the institutional Church/ - in the early twelfth century, Tanchelm preached at Antwerp that holy orders were unnecessary and Holy Communion was an ineffective channel of grace. Generally achieved a larger lay following because they seemed to be offering a better model of the existing Church when there was a general consensus that the Church needed to change some of its practices. /Heretics advocating abolition of the Church/ - believed that the Church was false and inspired by the Devil. Radical criticism of the Church engendered considerable popular hostility because they appeared to be attacking the entire social order. However, the Church rarely saw this as a major threat. For instance, Catholics quite logically believed that Catharism was unlikely to succeed due to practical problems. Cathars' presence would diminish the power of rulers to wage just wars, and the refusal to take oaths would undermine the fabric of tenurial and legal structures. Although there were people who respected and were in awe of the holy lives of Cathars, only a minority were actively willing to pursue such lifestyles. Authorities responded to heresy by using the legal system and canon law. In 1199, Pope Lucius III decreed that bishops were to visit local towns and villages where heresy was believed to be in existence and find groups and individuals who were not conforming to the orthodox line. They could then be punished by the secular ruler. A more exact penalty for heresy was laid out in 1199 by Pope Innocent III, allowing for land to be taken if found guilty of heresy. It is important to note that there is no mention of the death penalty by the religious authorities. This did not work in practice because there is evidence for lay people, especially in Northern Europe, responding to heresy with burning. /This book provides a useful background knowledge of the medieval church which can be helpful for context. It mainly employs a narrative approach, but it could potentially be useful for providing examples and evidence for essays and revision./0 likes